Above some of the Lombok neighbourhood kids, Jacqueline in the middle with the nice upright bow, next to her Gerard van Wijngaarden and his brother Nico sitting in front with the dark hair.
The van Wijngaarden’s ran a haberdashy store in Alexander Street. The boy next to Nico is Cor Heggelman, who in his late teens eloped to join the Foreign Legion and never heard off since. Further I recognise the Siebenheller and Liethof kids.
Socks and shirts were in need of restoration, and often there was a whole basket full.
Frequently we would see the inside of the drapery and haberdashy store of Van Wijngaarden for a piece of cloth, some wool or a bobbin of thread, as Mum and later Jacqueline, often sat behind their trusted Pfaff sewing machine, pedalling away mending and hemming.
Some of his customers were born and bred Arnhemmers with a true ‘Ernum’ accents; you couldn’t miss it, just listen to the manner of speech.
‘Meneer van Wijngaarden’ may I have some ‘zwèrte stopwol’ and ‘ kneupkes feur de bursrokke’ (black wool and little buttons for the underwear).
Mum threw nothing, as it would be darned sooner or later on her special wooden, smooth round-headed darner, an object looking very much like a mushroom.